Red Sox Watch: Boston secure two series wins to end week above .500 mark for first time since early April

Boston players get in some batting practice ahead of Sunday's clash against the Texas Rangers in Arlington (Image: @RedSox)

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The Major League Baseball season is a long one. A grand total of 162 games - 81 at home and 81 on the road - means it's always a rollercoaster of ups and downs.

Fans have to have the mindset that their team isn't going to win every game - far from it. Indeed, you have to accept that the chances are you are going to fail in at least 60 of them.

And if that's the case, you've had a magnificent season as you're more than likely to have made the post-season playoffs and be in the mix for the World Series title.

That said, having a winning week is always the preferred option, of course, and the Red Sox certainly enjoyed that these past seven days with a two-game sweep of the Cincinnati Reds at Fenway Park before taking two out of three contests in Texas against the Rangers.

After a day off on Monday, the Red Sox welcomed the Cincinnati Reds to Fenway Park on Tuesday. The two ballclubs are synonymous with an unforgettable World Series in 1975 in which the Reds prevailed four games to three. And although this match-up was not as significant as that meeting almost four decades ago now, it still had plenty of excitement.

Tuesday night's clash was certainly a long one - four hours and four minutes to be precise - as the game went to extra innings. And it was Grady Sizemore who turned out to be Boston's hero, his RBI single in the bottom of the 12th inning scoring David Ortiz for the game-winning run in a 4-3 Red Sox success.

On Wednesday evening, the Red Sox found themselves trailing 3-2 heading into the bottom of the eighth inning. Boston's starting pitcher Jake Peavy put in a quality start yielding just three runs over six innings but some offence was required. And it arrived via the bats of AJ Pierzynski and Will Middlebrooks. A ground-rule RBI double from Pierzynski tied the game at 3-3 before Middlebrooks chipped in with a go-ahead RBI single. Koji Uehara was then summoned from the bullpen to nail down his eighth save of the season as Boston held on for a second successive 4-3 triumph.

Thursday was a travel day for the Red Sox as they travelled south into the Lone Star State for a weekend series against the Texas Rangers.

Hoping to build on the success of the series against Cincinnati, the Red Sox was shut down in spectacular style by Texas pitcher Yu Darvish. The brilliant right-hander handcuffed Boston into the ninth inning and just needed one out for a rare no-hitter. However, Ortiz singled into right field to break up the pitcher's quest. Nevertheless, that was as good as it got for the Red Sox as one out later they were done for an 8-0 defeat.

Speaking after the game, Ortiz tipped his cap to Darvish's pitching performance. He said: "He was masterful. He was focused against everybody during the whole game. It doesn't matter if you were hitting third, ninth, eighth, he was executing."

After being stymied on Friday, the Red Sox were eager to hit back on Saturday - and they did, earning an 8-3 victory. Shane Victorino helped his team's cause driving in four of the runs on three hits. And Ortiz smacked the 438th home run of his magnificent career. Meanwhile, ace left-hander Jon Lester was in superb form on the mound striking out eight in seven stellar innings of work to earn the pitching win. The victory evened Boston's record at 18-18.

And they were delighted to move over the .500 mark on Sunday afternoon when a fine pitching display from starter John Lackey coupled with key hits from Dustin Pedroia and Pierzynski saw the team secure a 5-2 victory.

Pedroia clubbed his second home run of the season, a solo shot, while Pierzynski belted a two-run single against his former ballclub. Meanwhile, Lackey went seven inning giving up only a couple of runs while fanning nine in another dominant display. Uehara came in in the ninth to lock down the victory with his ninth save.

After a day off on Monday, the Red Sox are visiting the Minnesota Twins for games on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Then it's back to Fenway Park where the Detroit Tigers are the visitors for three night games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

As always, you can follow how the team are doing with daily tweets on Twitter via @67Snowy where the hashtag RedSoxWatch is used. There's pitching match-ups, results and other items of interest to Red Sox fans. And the weekly round-up of action - Red Sox Watch - will be here, exclusive to the Liverpool Echo website, this time next week.